Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to providing business consulting services, and more specifically, to a system and method for providing business solutions to clients via the Internet.
Related Art
Investing in the right e-commerce solution is often bewildering for businesses and individuals. The right solution could transform a company into an industry leader. The wrong solution, however, wastes time, money, and market share. A poorly conceived website attracts little attention and no new business. While the website languishes in the uncharted depths of the Internet, there's also a very real chance that competitors with better websites will lure customers away. There is thus a need for an effective website strategy.
In addition, in a world where rapid technological development is the norm, many websites fail to keep pace with the changing expectations of online customers. The inability to come to terms with new technological developments condemns many websites to failure. Companies must embrace new technologies on their websites and use a dynamic presentation to engage the user. Thus, there is a need for a technologically advanced website strategy.
Entities also need a dynamic and comprehensive e-commerce solution, and at a price well within reach. A website should remember users when they return, and, with an interactive shopping cart system, keep track of the items users want to buy. This familiarity fosters ease-of-use and improves customer loyalty, creating an atmosphere likely to boost sales. What is needed is an opportunity to expand sales through traditional e-commerce, and reduce expense by analyzing the tasks carried out within an organization and applying principles to enhance them. This allows these tasks to be carried out more efficiently and less expensively thanks to the Internet, ensuring major reductions in costs.
In addition, entities need an effective, comprehensive system and method for accessing remote and off-shore products and services. This system and method should ensure that required standards, quality, and processes are met. For example, it is extremely useful for entities that need websites to access website development services in less expensive areas of the world (e.g., India, China). As another example, it is also useful for entities that need to buy a product (e.g., food) or service (e.g., financial services) to access less expensive sellers or sellers in multiple jurisdictions. Currently, it is very difficult to connect a buyer with a seller in other countries, particularly if the country is a third world country. It is also challenging to deliver a quality product complying with the buyer's expectations.
Furthermore, high levels of security are required, ensuring that customers' online shopping experience are simple and safe. Thus, there is a need for a website strategy that incorporates security solutions.
In addition, a website should provide a fully featured administration system that easily allows updating of the range of products offered from the Internet browser, with the ability to add or remove products, change prices or launch special offers at any time of the night or day. Thus, a need exists for a website strategy that incorporates a-simple administrative system.
The marketing of a website is also important. Money spent developing an online presence is money wasted if the website existence is generally unknown. An important test of success or failure is the number of users a website attracts. Using this benchmark, the overwhelming majority of websites are failures. The chances of a user finding a website without knowing the uniform resource locator (URL) or being directed there by an external agency are low. Many strategies that work well in the physical world are doomed to fail in the electronic marketplace. Conversely, many techniques that would be far too expensive to contemplate in the “real” world are viable propositions on the net, where a potentially massive global audience is within easy reach. There is thus a need for a website strategy that includes advanced traffic-driving services (e.g., database marketing and search engine registration and optimization) and Internet marketing strategies.